Misc.: A small stone with a rounded upper edge; the deceased name follows the contour of the curved edge. Large patches of the stone have darkened, but some white still shows. Half of the epitaph at the bottom is almost illegible, though the remainder of the inscription is legible (though eroded in places).

Inscription: Samuel Mando Died Feb’y 15, 187 In his 52nd Year, Louis infant daughter of Samuel and Hannah Mando, Aged 10 mos. Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord.

Samuel Mando’s stone does not appear in the Common Council inventory. However, the inventory does list a stone for a Charlotte Mando who died on February 8, 1842 at the age of 19. The inventory, compiled from the actual headstone inscriptions, notes that she was the “wife of Samuel” so it is likely that the Hannah Mando mentioned on Samuel’s own stone is his second wife or third wife. Census records from the 1850s list his wife as Ann Mary.

Samuel Mando appears in the 1855 Albany census as residing in Albany’s 8th Ward with Ann and three children, Abraham (10), Hellen (3), and Emma (2). While his headstone indicates he would have been born around 1819, this particular census estimates his birth year as 1810 and lists Rensselaer as his birthplace.

The census records also list Samuel Mando’s occupation as a waiter. It was while working as the headwaiter on the Hudson River Day Line steamer Chauncey Vibbard in September 1865 that he became the victim of an assault that was undoubtedly racially motivated. Two men from Kentucky, George Merriweather and George H. Williamson, had been drinking heavily and shouting pro-Confederate mottoes in an attempt to cause a chaos as a distraction for attempted pickpocketing of fellow passengers. During the disruptive scene, Merriweather quarreled with and then stabbed Mando in the chest with a sword-cane.

More on Samuel Mando, his family, and the 1865 assault can be found here.